Zucchini
by ironlegion
Summary: Elsa and Anna's relationship with each other is special, loving, unique. The only issue is...explaining the way they feel about each other to other people.


"Come on Anna, what about that guy over there?"

Anna rolled her eyes as her coworker, Snow White, pointed out from behind their counter yet another man who had walked into the bakery.

"I'm sure he's a nice guy Snow. But it's like I keep telling all of you, I don't have any interest in dating."

On Anna's left her other coworker, Megara, snorted. "Oh come on Arendelle. You practically gush and ask for information when any of us even mention our relationships, but the minute we start searching for a boy-toy for you, suddenly you're not interested."

Anna smirked. "Just because I happen to be a big sap for romance doesn't mean I'm interested in going looking for it myself. I happen to be quite happy with my life as is."

"We know Anna but we just don't want you to be lonely." Her coworker Mei chimed in.

Anna chuckled. Her friends meant well, but they just didn't understand. She had plenty of love in her life already, even if it wasn't the romantic kind.

"Guys that's really sweet but I'm not-"

"Excuse me, I've got lunch here for an Anna Arendelle. Perhaps you've heard of her?"

Anna turned away from her friends to see the source of the voice and her eyes lit up with joy as she spotted a familiar blonde haired figure.

"Elsa!"

Anna leapt over the counter and rushed over to Elsa, wrapping her arm around her waist and pulling her in close so she could lovingly press her forehead to hers.

Anna pulled her head away while keeping an arm circled around her and looked at Elsa with utter adoration. "What are you doing here? I don't get off work for another couple of hours."

"Like I said, I came to bring you lunch." Elsa held up a large brown paper bag. "While I'm sure miss Dupain-Cheng offers you a fine meal, I thought you might like something a bit more personal. And since your lunch break starts just a bit after mine, I thought I'd bring you something. So, I got you your favorite sandwiches from that deli not too far from here. "

"Really? Oh, thank you so much."

"It was no trouble my love."

Anna giggled at Elsa's nickname for her. "Well M'lady, would you perhaps be interested in joining me for lunch?"

"Ugh, I'd love to, but I'm really swamped with working on this new building design at work and I got to get back."

"I thought you were on lunch break?" Anna narrowed her eyes at her. "You're not skipping lunch so you can keep working again are you?"

"What? No, of course not." Elsa chuckled nervously.

Anna looked pointedly at her. "Elsa…"

"I'm making sure to eat my lunch at my desk. I just really need to make sure I get this design done." Elsa said quickly.

Anna huffed. "Fine. But you better be telling the truth. I don't want you skipping lunch and then devouring your dinner like a wild animal again."

"I promise." Elsa pressed a kiss against Anna's cheek. "I really do have to go."

"Alright." Anna reluctantly unwound her arm from around Elsa's waist. "I'll see you at home later. I love you."

"I love you too."

Anna waved Elsa off and turned around only to find that all three of her coworkers were staring at her with buggy eyes and dropped jaws.

"What?"

Mei was the first to recover, her shocked expression morphing into a wide excited smile.

"Don't "what" us! Why didn't you tell us you had a girlfriend?"

Anna frowned in confusion.

"Girlfriend? Oh, oh no, she's not-."

"Seriously Anna, this isn't the 1800s. None of us would've cared that your a lesbian. You could've just told us that you don't swing that way. " Megara said, having also gotten out of her stupor.

"I'm not a- well, I'm bisexual, but that's not it-."

"Oooh, how did you two meet? How long have you been together? Oh man, you said you would see her at dinner? Are you two living together?" Snow Squealed.

"I-"

"Well it must be pretty serious considering her nice little pet name for you. "My love" huh?" Megara teased.

Anna's face flushed. "That's-."

"And you called her m'lady! God that's so cute!"

"Are you guys really serious?"

"If you're living together are you thinking of popping the question?"

"Is she any good in bed?"

"ELSA IS MY SISTER!"

Anna's breathe heaved after shouting over her friends questions.

"Your-your sister?" Mei asked.

"Yes! Elsa is my big sister." Anna wheezed.

Megara looked at her skeptically. "You're big sister calls you "my love"? And you call her "m'lady?"

"It's just…something from when we were kids." Anna muttered, her eyes looking to the ground.

"But you two were so…affectionate. Having your hand on her hip, the kiss she gave you on her cheek, and the way you two were looking at each other-."

"She's just my sister okay!" Anna snapped.

All three of their eyes widened at her outburst.

"Okay. We get it."

"Yeah, sorry Anna. We shouldn't have doubted you."

While Mei and Snow both looked ashamed, Megara was looking at Anna with a raised brow.

"She's really just your sister?"

"Yes." Anna said, trying to sound as stern as possible.

Megara still looked somewhat suspicious but she shrugged and said. "Whatever you say Arendelle.

Anna sighed. "Let's just go to lunch."

But as they walked, Anna's stomach swirled with guilt. It wasn't as if she'd lied to any of her friends. She and Elsa were sisters. That wasn't a lie.

But that wasn't the whole truth either.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Anna couldn't get rid of the feeling that her insides were squirming around. She went home, had a nice dinner with Elsa, with Elsa eating a moderate amount and at a normal pace to prove she had indeed eaten lunch, and then the two of them watched a movie together on the couch. It was Anna's turn to pick so they'd chosen a cheesy romantic comedy. Anna was snuggled into Elsa's left side, her head resting on her shoulder and Elsa's arm wrapped around her.

Usually Elsa snuggles were enough to dispel any of her daily blues but even pressed into the warmth of her sister, Anna still felt as if there were worms crawling their way around her stomach.

Elsa must have noticed her discomfort because she paused the movie and shifted her head around to look at her and asked. "What's wrong?"

Anna sighed. "Nothing. I'm fine."

"Anna, that woman just delivered a sappy heartfelt speech to her lover and you didn't squeal or point it out. What's wrong?"

Anna knew there was no point in continuing to lie. "My friends from work saw us together when you brought me my lunch."

"Okay, and?"

"And they thought that you were my girlfriend."

"But you told them the truth right?"

"I told them we were sisters." Anna said, sounding as if she didn't completely believe it.

"That is the truth."

"Yeah, but that's not _all_ we are to each other."

Elsa frowned.

"You don't have to hide it from them. I know we try not to tell everyone we meet but if they're your friends then you should just tell them."

"I know but…what if they think it's weird or don't want to be friends anymore because of it. I mean not everyone's that nice about it. Do you remember that guy Scott back in college?"

"Yes I do." Elsa grimaced. "I seem to remember him saying to "stop acting like we weren't screwing."

"Exactly. What if they think we're weird too? What if they don't want to be friends anymore because of it? Or what if-?"

"Anna, love, it's all right." Elsa reassuringly stroked Anna's hair to calm her down. "These people are your friends. Now, I may not know them as well as you do, but if you trust them enough to give them your friendship then I'm sure they will accept you even if they discover the truth. You have pretty good taste in people."

Anna chuckled. "Flatterer." Then she thought it over. "I guess you have a point. Do you think you'd be okay with going with me when I tell them?"

"Do you want me there?"

"It'd be easier if I had the support. Plus, you're always better at explaining it then I am."

"Okay then. I'll join you for lunch and we can explain everything to them then. Now what do you say we finish the movie? The big proposal scene is coming up."

Anna let out a relaxed sigh. The wriggling feeling In her belly had somewhat receded. She nuzzled closer into the crook of Elsa's neck. "That's sounds perfect.

* * *

The next day at work Anna was a nervous wreck. She continuously drummed her fingers against the counter, she was stutters around the customers, and the wriggling in her stomach had come back so strong that she hadn't been able to stomach eating breakfast that morning.

She'd told her friends that she needed to talk to them during lunchtime but that only made her anxiousness worse. Every few seconds her eyes would dart back down to the watch on her wrist and remind her of the amount of time until lunch. Her mind couldn't help but conjure dozens of exaggerated worse case scenarios of how her friends might react to the truth about her and Elsa ranging from them laughing at her to them deciding to quit just because they found her too weird to work around.

By the time it was 5 minutes to lunch Anna's heart had nearly beaten out of her chest. It was only the sight of Elsa strolling through the door that managed to keep her from either having a heart attack or bolting our of the door.

Elsa came to the counter and examined Anna. "Are you ready?"

Anna gulped. "Not really."

Elsa calmly patted Anna's shoulder. "It'll be okay."

Anna let out a breath. Then she called. "Hey guys?"

Immediately all her friends came over from what they were doing.

"Oh hey. It's Elsa right?" Mei asked, offering her hand out to Elsa.

Elsa took her hand and shook it. "Yes. We've never met before, but Anna speaks very highly of all of you."

"I'm Mei."

"My names Snow.

Snow and Mei both seemed happy to meet Elsa but Megara was staring at her and Anna with suspicion.

"Right, Elsa. You're Anna's sister right?"

Anna's throat constricted at Megs interrogative tone. Elsa however, seemed nonplussed.

"Yes, I am."

Megara looked as if she was about to say something but seemed to decide against it and held her own hand out to Elsa.

"Names Megara. What few friends I've got call me Meg. You can call me Megara."

"Nice to meet you Megara. Why don't we all sit down for lunch?"

The five of them walked to the back of the bakery and into the break room where the employees ate lunch, which was thankfully empty. One of the perks of the job was that Ms Dupain-Cheng, the owner of the bakery, was the kind of woman who wanted all her employees to get a hearty delicious meal, so it wasn't uncommon for her to provide a hot lunch. The meal for today was some delicious looking spaghetti and meatballs. They all walked over to the aluminum heating pans holding the food and piled spaghetti onto their plates before heading finding a table and sitting down, Elsa and Anna on one side, the girls on the other.

For a few minutes they simply ate in silence, enjoying the meal provided to them. Anna tore into her plate hoping that her veracious spaghetti eating would both ease the twists in her intestines and also keep her from having talk to her friends us yet.

"Uh, Anna?"

Anna looked up from her plate at Elsa, her mouth so filled with noodles and meatballs that a string of spaghetti dangled out of her mouth.

Elsa looked at her with an amused smile. "You've got some something on your face right about here." She tapped a spot on her cheeks

Anna slurped up the noodle hanging out of her mouth and swallowed her enormous mouthful of food. She then swept her hand across her cheek. "Did I get it?"

"No. Hold still." Elsa leaned over and gently gripped Anna's chin with her hand. Then, with her other hand, she used her thumb like a windshield wiper and gently

Elsa rolled her eyes playfully. "Here, let me get it." She reached over and used her thumb to wipe the sauce from Anna's cheek.

Anna smiled. "Thank you M'lady."

The two of them then noticed that Anna's friends were once again staring at them. When they saw that they noticed them staring all avoided looking away in different directions.

Mei cleared her throat. "So, what did you want to talk to us about?"

Anna sighed. It was time to talk.

"So, do you guys remember how I told you that Elsa and I were just sisters?"

All three of them nodded.

"Well…that wasn't exactly true."

"I KNEW IT!" Megara suddenly shouted. When she saw the way everyone else was staring at her she said. "What? The way they made goo-goo eyes at each other, it was obvious. I'm surprised they didn't start making ou-."

"No! No, We are sisters, It's just that we're a bit…_more_ to each other than that."

That silenced Megara and made all three of her friends get confused looks. For a moment not one spoke. Then Snow finally asked. "What do you mean _more_ _to each other_?

Anna's heartbeat hit on it's accelerator again. She grew tongue tried as she quickly tried to explain. "Well we, she and I I mean, we…we're uh-."

As Anna struggled to get out the words, she felt something warmth enclose around one of her hands. She looked down and saw that Elsa's hand was now wrapped around her own. When she looked at Elsa's face she saw she was giving her an encouraging smile.

The sight of that smile managed to slow the hummingbird like pace of Anna's heart and clear away her nervousness. She looked back to her friends and said as calmly as possible. "Elsa and I are in a queerplatonic relationship."

That didn't help her friends confusion.

"Queerplatonic?" Mei asked.

"I'm confused. Are you two going all Lannister with each other or not?" Megara asked.

Anna looked to Elsa. "You mind helping me out here?"

"Of course. Okay, a queerplatonic relationship is a relationship a bit like a romantic one, just without a need for romantic affection. Some people see it as just being like a close friendship but it's more intense than that. There's a deeper emotional and physical intimacy than that."

Snow looked a bit nauseous at hearing that. "Physical intimacy?"

Both Anna and Elsa got bright blushes when they realized what she was implying.

"Oh no! God no, not like that! Well, there are some like that but we aren't _that _intimate with each other-."

"Elsa is completely asexual." Anna cut in. "She has about as much interest in sex as a sponge does."

"That isn't really the only reason I wouldn't be interested in a sexual relationship with you but thank you Anna." Elsa deadpanned.

Their explanation seemed to have put her friends at ease but they still seemed unsure.

"So, this kind of thing is normal?" Megara asked.

"Of course. Plenty of people enter queerplatonic relationships." Elsa said.

"With their_ siblings_?"

That made her pause.

"That part is a bit unusual. Usually a qpr is an outside family relationship and we've definitely gotten some odd looks from others in similar relationships but no ones raised too much fuss about it."

Mei raised her hand.

"Mei, this isn't school. You don't need to raise your hand." Anna said.

"Sorry." Mei lowered her hand. "Why did you guys start your…relationship?"

"Well, even when we were children Anna and I were extremely close." Elsa explained. "Due to some issues we were kept apart for many years and only really reunited once in college. And once we did, I realized that I loved Anna more than anything else. She was my everything and I cared for her so much.I was afraid of her leaving me and meeting someone who'd become more important to her So, after some serious therapy and a good amount of research, I asked her if she'd enter a relationship with me."

"It definitely threw me for a loop." Anna admitted. "I wasn't expecting Elsa to want something like that, especially not with me. But after chatting with a few friends of mine and really thinking it over, I realized that this was something that I wanted too. I was always chasing after Elsa, wanting to be close to her. I dated other people because I was trying to fill the Elsa shaped hole in my heart. But I came to realize…" Anna gave Elsa a loving smile and slung an arm around her shoulder so she could pull her closer to her. "She's all that I need"

"Awwww!" Snow and Mei squealed.

Megara seemed much more placated by their explenation. "So, what exactly are you guys?"

"We're still sisters I swear." Anna said.

"No, I mean like is there a word you use to describe what you are to each other? Like if someone asked you'd say "Elsa is my"…?"

"Oh, um, well most people just might say partner-." Elsa started.

"Elsa is my zucchini." Anna interrupted.

"Your zucchini?" Mei laughed.

"It's a term for a queerplatonic partner." Elsa said, her face bearing a slight blush. "Anna you know you can just say that."

"Nope! Your my zucchini and I love you." Anna placed a big smooch on Elsa's cheek. "Mwah!"

Elsa giggled. "Okay, okay. I"m your zucchini."

"Man, you two are so cute together!" Mei squealed.

"They remind me of my parents when I was a kid." Snow said.

Anna looked to them hopefully. "So, you guys don't think this is weird?"

"I mean, it's a little unusual but you guys seem so happy together. I don't see much issue with it."

"Yeah. Besides, you can practically see how much you two love each."

Anna's gaze then turned to Megara. "Meg?"

She said nothing for a moment before shrugging and saying. "As long as everything's kosher and you guys don't go too Game of Thrones, I don't see any problems."

Anna let out a breathe she felt like she'd been holding in all day. The squirming in his guts finally dissipated.

Elsa swung her own arm over Anna's shoulder and pulled her into a hug. "See? I told you you didn't have anything to worry. about."

"Okay, but now we we need details. Like, what other kinds of stuff do you guys do together?" Mei asked.

"Well, we occasionally go on dates. Go to the movies, go out to dinner, we once even went to a party for other people and their zucchinis. Funny thing is, that's actually how I got this job. I met Mrs Dupain-Cheng and her partner there."

"No way!" Mei cried.

"Tell us more!" Snow pleaded.

"That does sound like one hell of a story Arendelle." Megara agreed.

Anna let out strong laugh. It felt so good to finally be able to share this part of her life with her friends.

"Since you guys are so interested I'll tell you. It was back when Elsa and I where in college. Our relationship was still young and new….

* * *

**_This fic is a culmination of ideas that I've had about Elsa and Anna being involved in a queerplatonic relationship. I've been attached to the idea ever since I first started understanding the term and what it means. In case the story didn't explain it well enough, a Queerplatonic relationship is one that isn't a romantic relationship but that goes beyond the usual emotional and physical boundaries than would be considered normal for just friendship. I felt that that term was a perfect way of describing Elsa and Anna's relationship and feelings for each other. _**

**_Zucchini is an actual term used by people in queerplatonic relationships. It was taken up as a term for a queerplatonic partner because of the lack of terms for someone who was more than a friend but not a romantic partner._**

**_The Mrs Dupain-Cheng is meant to be Marinette from Miraculous Ladybug. Megara is from Hercules, Snow White from Snow White, and Mei is one of the three princess sisters from Mulan 2._**

**_If you enjoy this story or not leave a comment and let me know your thoughts_**


End file.
